Wednesday, June 2, 2010

AREMA victory - the aftermath

This morning, four of us set out to go downtown to get some fabric. We are having clothes made for a wedding we're going to in July. Here, formal dress means the whole family wears clothes made of the same print material (shirts for guys, dresses for girls). But I digress...

We were about a third of the way there to find our way completely blocked by mobs of motorcycles. The Malang soccer team - AREMA, as it's called - won the league over the weekend. So, today (and we hear maybe most of the next week) became a holiday. It's true. Some universities in the city closed in recognition of the accomplishment.

This picture hardly does the crowd justice. Motorcycles were lined up for maybe 1/2 mile - two lanes wide - just sitting in the road. Maybe they were waiting to all parade together at a certain time.

This is another place near the first where the first shot was taken just a few minutes later. In other words, there were many unofficial groups riding around. There was no official celebration that I know of.The team's mascot is a lion.

This was my personal favorite. The music was loud and the confetti was flying!

We never made it downtown. If we had, we might not be back yet! We'll try again soon. We just went to a mall much closer to home and then came home. Our taxi driver was the real winner because he had the chance to do a little extra driving as we adapted our route.